bp vs. the cia

every now and again a story worthy of a film plot breaks in the media exposing a covert intelligence operation. last night, that happened.

the setting: tripoli, libya

the spy: douglas oriali

• known citizenships: canadian, australian, irish
• cover story: he’s an archaeologist visiting libya on holiday, some reports say he claimed to be warning bp about the environmental impact of a drilling operation on the libyan coast

the mission: according to libyan authorities, to gather intelligence on behalf of canadian intelligence and ultimately for the cia to ensure the failure of planned bp drilling operation in libya

the point of failure: oriali was surveilled by libyan authorities and was seen meeting with a us diplomat suspected of being a cia operative

the consequences: oriali is currently being detained in his hotel room. he has given up his bank details and details of his email conversations under questioning. his mobile phone and laptop have been confiscated. also (speculation), if oriali really is a canadian/contract spy, his career is definitely over.

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while it’s certainly normal for archaeologists with three passports to meet with american diplomats on holiday in a dictatorship, perhaps next time the cia could arrange for the actual meeting to take place outside of libyan jurisdiction.

article

let the speculation on why the cia is sabotaging bp begin. wouldn’t it be great if the motive was a gulf of mexico adaptation of this?

diplojibe hall of fame (cont’d)

add these from the fp site to the list.

notes verbale have never been more exciting

the OO has written, read, and despatched more than his fair share of notes verbale, but never has the word triggered so much excitement as it did when he read the new note verbale blog. written by an ir student at the OO’s favourite institution of higher learning, note verbale presents ‘thoughts and discussion on the un, international law, and international relations’. the blog premieres with a great inaugural post and a thought-provoking followup. find it from the link above or from the OO’s own blogroll.

how to escalate a sectarian crisis

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9 days ago, the OO wrote about bahrain authorising its security forces to shoot citizens suspected of plotting against the state on sight. the saga continues. bahrain is an often-forgotten but extremely crucial flashpoint in the middle east cold war between side iran-shi’a arabs-relevant insurgent groups and side  sunni arabs-usa-relevant insurgent groups (a far less united batch of allies of convenience). while bahrain has, in the last decade, mostly been famous for loving michael jackson, hating michael jackson, and banking, the khalifa monarchy decided to up the ante today in bahrain’s struggle for  its citizens’ souls. the primarily sunni government revoked the citizenship of, and will presumably deport, the country’s top shi’a cleric, ayatollah hussein mirza najati. on the plus side, he can probably take the 2 hour boat ride to iran, where the OO has it on good authority that ayatollahs get treated pretty well.

bahrain fun fact: bahrain has the honour of having one of the coolest country names in all of ir. its official name, ad-dowlat al-bahrain, is arabic for ‘the state of the two seas’. warning: this becomes less cool when one realises that bahrain is an island surrounded entirely by one sea.

how to dodge like ahmedinejad

the international campaign for human rights in iran has released a guide for reporters on ‘how to interview iranian officials on human rights issues’. it teaches journalists how to use the canned answers the iranian foreign ministry teaches its diplomats against them. indeed, a guide like this one created secretly and passed confidentially to  journalists is any government communications office’s worst nightmare. fortunately for the various establishments that continue to run the world (for better or for worse), particularly in this case that of iran, ichri’s guide is freely available online, allowing sharp iranian officials to study, prepare, and counter.

get a pdf of the guide here.

in a recent interview, ahmadinejad's spin tactics left george stephanopoulos stumped.

how to compromise your own national security

question: where is the worst place for tajikistan to locate a prison in which it detains violent islamic extremists?

answer: near the border with its relatively lawless, violent islamic extremist-ridden neighbour, afghanistan.

because first this happens. then this happens.

the aftaj border, where you can hide out for months and launch attacks from any number of discreet caves/mountain passes

downsides to rosetta stone

the economist online writes a great piece on the downside to rosetta stone language learning.

overall, the OO highly recommends language-lovers to read the johnson blog.

the ir-ification of hsbc adverts

an example of the hsbc adverts the OO and other travellers are used to seeing in airports round the world:

a normal hsbc advert

undoubtedly clever.

the ir-ified hsbc advert the OO spotted at gate c97 in newark airport yesterday (click to enlarge):

the ir-ified hsbc advert

but what does it mean????? relations between the usa and iran are constantly tensing and now hsbc is jumping into the mix with a cryptic message!

the diplojibe hall of fame

listening to diplomats say anything at all can be mind-numbing because they are trained from their internship days to be vague, discreet, and overly sensitive to offending anyone. this kind of diplospeak is occasionally interrupted by rare, yet totally awesome, instances in which a diplomat has just had enough of this sh*t. more often than not, they come in the form of clever jibes and quips that leave everyone in the general assembly stifling an OH SNAP. the diplojibe hall of fame is what will hopefully be a series of posts throughout the life span of this blog documenting some of the most clever, or even just the funniest, insults hurled by diplomats and heads of state to one another.

“man is a political animal” (aristotle), so let his political jibes be immortalised in this hall of fame:

french foreign ministry spokesman bernard valero, 11/09/2010 (source):

that fidel castro shows an interest in human rights is truly revolutionary.

vladimir putin, after being challenged by eu states, among them italy, about corruption in russia, 23/10/2006 (source):

mafia is not a russian word.

unnamed afghan and iranian diplomats, as witnessed by the OO, 2009:

afghan (in english): hello, how are you?

iranian (in persian): you’re speaking to me in english? ah, now that the americans are in your country, you speak english very well, eh?

afghan (in english): well, if that’s the case then i’m sure you’ll all have phd’s in english soon enough.

king juan carlos of spain to hugo chavez at the ibero-american summit, 2007:

for those who require a translation for the above clip, hugo chavez consistently interrupts josé zapatero, and juan carlos finally gets out of his chair, turns to chavez, and says, “why don’t you shut up?!”

has bahrain authorised shoot-on-sight for dealing with rioters?

one of the OO’s contacts in bahrain informed him today of developments taking place in the small, middle eastern island kingdom.

background: for anyone who has not been following the situation in bahrain, recently the government arrested 23 prominent shi’a activists on charges of terrorism and plotting to overthrow the leadership. further, it has detained 250 other citizens for questioning in relation to the ‘plot’. in response, some of bahrain’s shi’as (who comprise between 60 and 70% of the population, hold nearly half of the national assembly seats, but feel discriminated against by the ruling elite) have taken to the streets in protest. while the situation has not quite deteriorated to the level of the shi’a riots that rocked bahrain throughout the 1990s, some protests have turned violent.

the news: the contact has stated that, while it is being kept out of the papers and has not been officially confirmed (likely to avoid panic or dissidence) , between 7 and 10 days ago the government enacted a law authorising military police officers to shoot ‘suspected terrorists’ from the plot (read: violent rioters) on sight. the OO is looking into obtaining photographs (send some if you have them!), but apparently military police can currently be seen in the streets carrying sniper rifles, an unusual sight in bahrain.

one of the contact’s sources: a member of the bahraini royal family

photo from anti-government riot last year in malkiya, bahrain (credit: shawn baldwin for the new york times)